Ehsan Rafeemanesh, Mehdi Balali-Mood, Maryam Vahabzadeh, Behdin Nowrouzi-Kia, Farzaneh Rahimpour

Abstract

Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases are responsible for about 30% of mortalities around the world. Although physical inactivity has been known as a risk factor for these diseases, few studies have investigated the role of occupational inactivity in the workplace as a predisposing factor for ischemic heart disease. The aim of this study was to compare the risk factors of ischemic heart disease between the production and administrative workers in a steel production factory. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, participants included two groups of production and administrative workers. Collected data comprised demographic characteristics, medical history, and physical examination of employees. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 16 software, using chi-square test for qualitative variables and t-test for quantitative variables. Results: In overall, 248 men consisting 135 (54.4%) production workers and 113 (45.6%) administrative workers were enrolled in the study. The mean age of the production and administrative workers was 36.84±7.11 and 38.12±6.5 years, respectively. The mean length of work experience in the production and administrative workers was respectively 11.35±6.04 and 12.56±6.21 years. The prevalence of ischemic heart disease and its risk factors among production and administrative workers were respectively as follows: ischemic heart disease 0.7% and 6.2%; hypertension 5.9% and 6.2%; dyslipidemia 11.1% and 15%; diabetes 0.7% and 0.9%; smoking 12.6% and 3.5%; and elevated body mass index 59.3% and 0.7%. Amongst these items, only ischemic heart diseases prevalence was significantly lower in production workers compared with administrative workers (p=0.02). Conclusion: According to our results, continuous sedentary work may increase the possibility of ischemic heart disease and its risk factors in men. In contrast, occupations with dynamic or static physical activity as walking, manual labor, etc have a protective effect on the incidence of ischemic heart diseases and its risk factors. Therefore, encouraging the employees to increase their physical activity in daily life and in the workplace is beneficial in preventing ischemic heart diseases.